Fletcher Cove redux

The ad hoc committee recently appointed by the Solana Beach City Council to look at options for the Fletcher Cove Community Center usage seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place. However, a reasonable solution to the dilemma exists: There is a way to change the regulations for FCCC usage if nuisances arise. I propose the following:

Announce a one-year trial period for the adopted initiative, with a formal council review of its effects at the six-month point and at year-end. If events prove that a clear nuisance exists from noise, liquor usage and/or parking, then modify the Solana Beach Municipal Code — to which the initiative is tied — to address these specific points.

There is wide latitude in the items the code can address; the list of topics runs from yearly increases in sewer service charges to weightier issues of public safety and community issues both small and large.

I believe it is both useful and necessary to preserve the approach of a trial period. During such period, residents anywhere in Solana Beach are afforded the protections they currently enjoy under the existing code. And private parties in residential neighborhoods anywhere in the city that serve any kind of liquor fall under the same existing regulations that protect the neighbors. If those prove to be insufficient for FCCC usage, then they can be tightened.

This approach has the added benefit in that the council is tackling the problem from a different angle: It makes the assumption that the overwhelming majority of FCCC users will be responsible adults who respect neighbors’ concerns. The compromise policy now in effect seems to imply that FCCC users cannot be assumed to be responsible and must therefore be regulated before any transgressions occur. Perhaps the approach outlined above will alleviate some of the public rancor over this discussion and lead to successful, non-controversial usage of a beautiful Solana Beach asset.